


Braids and Backstory

by PJO_Connoisseur



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Has A Sibling (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex Has Anxiety (Julie and The Phantoms), Asexual Character, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Hair Braiding, Light Angst, M/M, Past Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Post-Canon, Willie's Backstory (Julie and The Phantoms)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PJO_Connoisseur/pseuds/PJO_Connoisseur
Summary: In which Alex shows off his braiding skills, learns more about Willie, and attempts to flirt.
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 43
Kudos: 469





	Braids and Backstory

Alex had loved Willie’s hair from the first time he watched it tumble out of his helmet. Having hair that long and silky should be a crime, but if it was, Alex would be more than happy to be guilty by association. Having noticed Alex’s enamorment, Willie liked to tease that Alex only hung around him for his hair even though they both knew that was far from true. After everything that had happened with Caleb, rebuilding trust had been a process, but they were working on it.

These facts became relevant one day when Alex and Willie were in the studio while the others were gone: Julie was at Flynn’s until tomorrow, and Reggie and Luke were exploring the city together. Although Luke and Reggie had met Willie before, Alex thought it high time that they get to know him in a context that didn’t involve a revenge plot. It was important to Alex that his friends like each other — especially when he was maybe hoping he and Willie were heading toward ‘boyfriends’ instead. He was pretty sure they both felt the chemistry, but Willie hadn’t touched the topic, and Alex wasn’t about to bring it up lest he find he’d been reading the situation all wrong. Anxiety overruled emotional maturity and perceptiveness.

Anxiety was also ruling  _ him _ right now. Luke and Reggie would be back in a couple hours and then he’d find out if the most important people in his life would get along. Or, more accurately, if Reggie and Luke could forgive Willie for indirectly almost getting them permanently killed.

“Alex,” Willie said from his spot on the couch.

The interruption of Alex’s train of thoughts made him stop pacing so abruptly he stumbled forward. “Yeah?”

Willie was amused and patted the spot beside him. “I can feel you thinking. And see it. And hear it.”

“Sorry,” Alex said, sitting beside Willie though he was stiff. His leg jiggled as he restrained the desire to bounce it.

“Don’t be,” Willie said, glancing at Alex’s leg before landing on his face. “You’re worried, but there’s nothing we can do about it, right? What’s going to happen is going to happen.”

Willie was the most chill person Alex knew, having a subtle but noticeable calming effect on him. “I’m afraid they won’t be able to forgive you,” Alex said softly.

Willie placed a hand on his arm, Alex’s eyes landing on it. “Maybe they won’t,” he said. “They don’t have to. But panicking won’t help.”

Alex  _ knows _ panicking won’t help, but that’s never stopped him before. It’s as though the sense of impending doom is imprinted on his bones, varying in its strength from day to day, but always present. 

Willie must have sensed his lack of control, because he switched tactics, attempting to distract him. He took a blue hair-tie out of his pocket. “You’ve said you want to braid my hair. How about now?”

Alex perked up. “Really? Won’t it be uncomfortable with your helmet?”

“Not if you start low,” Willie said, tapping the base of his neck. He was grinning, fully aware that his plan was working.

“Okay,” Alex said, his energy now that of excitement. He slipped the hair-tie around his wrist for later and walked around the back of the couch. Willie’s hair was silky despite what one would expect from a skater, and although Willie made fun of Alex for his enthrallment with it, Alex could tell Willie had intentionally taken good care of it while he was alive.  _ While he was alive. _ That stuck in Alex’s head while he ran his fingers through Willie’s hair to untangle it. The time they’d spent together had focused more on Alex’s afterlife and the Caleb situation than anything else, so Alex didn’t know much about Willie’s life.

“How did you start skateboarding?” Alex asked by way of an entrypoint to the topic. Aside from casual, light-hearted references, Willie never seemed keen on discussing his past, leaving Alex unsure how touchy the subject was. Skateboarding, Willie’s first love, was a safe place to start.

A couple seconds passed before Willie answered. “I had a crush on this guy in sixth grade. He mostly hung out at the skatepark, which I thought was the epitome of cool at the time, so I taught myself how to skate so I had an excuse to be there. I even tried to impress him with my moves. Didn’t work, but I tried. Skateboarding turned out to be way cooler than him anyway.”

Alex chuckled. “I can’t imagine you picking up a sport for a crush,” he said as he was splitting Willie’s hair into sections.

“I was twelve,” Willie said with the only defensiveness Alex had ever heard from him. “Have you never done anything dumb for love?”

Alex hummed in contemplation. “I suppose so. None of the traditional stuff, though, like grand gestures to get someone’s attention. It was the ‘90s. When Luke and I dated I snuck out to see him.”

“I didn’t know you and Luke dated.” Alex slowed down with his work, bracing himself for Willie’s judgment, but Willie continued with, “It must be cool to be friends with an ex.”

Alex’s eyebrows raised as he began braiding Willie’s hair. “You think it’s cool?”

Willie looked over his shoulder, slowly enough to accommodate not damaging Alex’s work. His smile was big and genuine. Alex was pretty sure Willie wasn’t capable of ingenuine. “Of course. It’s like an extra layer to your history. Makes you even better friends.” He turned forward again.

His response poked a hole in Alex’s chest, letting out the unconscious tension. “Yeah,” Alex said. “I’ve never thought about it that way, but I guess you’re right.”

Willie laughed under his breath. “So, the sneaking out. I guess your parents didn’t know about you guys, then?”

“God, no,” Alex said. “After I came out to them...Things were never the same. I don’t...I don’t think it was homophobia, exactly. They lived through the AIDS epidemic, and most of the time you saw gay people on TV, it was a news report about a hate crime. I don’t think they looked at me and saw a pervert...I think they looked at me and saw a dead man walking.” Alex cleared his throat, only then noticing his hands had stopped, returning to braiding. Willie’s hair was soft between his fingers and easily weaved together. “I didn’t want to worry them, and I’m a bad liar.”

“I could guess as much,” Willie said, lightening the mood.

Alex took one hand off the braid to flick the back of Willie’s ear, earning a laugh that further alleviated the stress from the memory. When he thought too much about it he could still feel how his heart seemed to stop until he made it wherever he and Luke were meeting up. Luke had had to do the same thing, having been confused about his feelings and not having been out to his parents back then, and Alex wondered if that was what Luke was thinking about when he opened the window for Julie to make an escape during her grounding. The funny thing was, looking back, Alex had a hunch Emily and Mitch knew about their relationship and simply didn’t mind.

Alex was midway through Willie’s braid and unsatisfied with what he’d learned. Questions were the easiest way to guide the conversation, so he asked another: “Have you always gotten to be out? I guess I don’t know when you died, but you’re caught up with all the modern lingo.” Okay, so maybe directly addressing Willie’s death wasn’t the best way to keep the conversation low-stakes, but it was too late to take it back.

“Sort of,” Willie said, and Alex couldn’t tell from tone alone if he was bothered. “Homophobia isn’t dead, but I could have come out at any time with relative safety if I’d wanted to, if that’s what you mean.”

Alex braided on autopilot as he spoke. “Safety was always the factor I had to consider, but you make it sound like it’s more complicated than that now.”

Willie nodded, then murmured an apology for moving. “It’s not just about safety anymore. Nowadays talking about sexuality is a lot more common and open. There’re more labels, and some people know what they are from a young age, but not everyone does. It took me a while to piece everything together.”

Alex used the hair-tie to finish the braid, holding it with one hand while smoothing over it with the other, examining his handiwork. “Can I ask a probably stupid question?”

Willie tilted his head back to look at him. “You’re from a different decade. Your questions can’t be stupid.”

“Watch me,” Alex said, coming around the couch to sit beside Willie, a bit closer than before, their arms brushing. With Luke he’d been the more confident of the two, but with Willie every act of progress was also one of daring. His hands were pressed together on his lap. “What’s there to figure out? I’m not doubting you, but I—I always knew I was gay, since I was a kid.”

Willie leaned back as well, and maybe a little toward Alex, and when he spoke, he talked with his hands. “When I was younger I had a hard time telling the difference between platonic and romantic attraction, I guess. I was pretty sure I was gay, because I was feeling things for guys I wasn’t for girls, but I thought maybe I was wrong because I never really described my crushes the way other people did.”

“What do you mean?” Alex said. He flexed his fingers against his lap, itching to put a hand on Willie’s knee or make any kind of move, but scared to cross a line while also scared to ask permission.

Willie played with the end of the loose braid as if he’d always had one. He really did look good with his hair like that, the aesthetic helped rather than hindered by the hair Alex had missed, which he was now resisting the urge to tuck back. Willie wouldn’t quite meet Alex’s eye, a stark contrast to Alex usually being the nervous one while Willie existed without much of a filter. As Willie’s leg began bouncing, Alex worked up the nerve to graze his exposed knee in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

Willie smiled at him, small and sweet, and Alex’s doubt lifted out of him. “Time for another modern vocab word,” Willie said. “Asexuality.”

“Oh, I think I can guess this one,” Alex said, excited for a word that had hints of familiarity. “New word for celibacy?” He could then tell from Willie’s laugh that Alex was incorrect but had answered as expected. Alex was slowly learning the types of laughs and smiles Willie had: one for when Alex said or did something that exposed his decade of origin, one for when he was feeling carefree and satisfied, one for when he saw something cute, one for when he was making fun of lifers. And one, if Alex wasn’t mistaken, for when he was flirting. They were not mutually exclusive.

Willie said, “Nah. Lack of sexual attraction.” He was putting on a mask of being as chill as ever, but the casual demeanor didn’t reach his eyes.

Alex blinked at him. For him, that sort of thing had always been part of, though nowhere near the entirety of, romantic attraction. Then again, if sexual attraction could exist without romantic attraction, then why not vice versa? Alex smiled, moving his hand from Willie’s knee to his hand, Willie’s underlying discomfort and need for reassurance taking precedent. “And that’s you?” he said, keeping his voice light. When Willie gave a curt nod, Alex squeezed his hand and said, “Cool.”

Willie’s smile was hesitant. “Cool?”

Alex nodded. “Cool.”

The hesitation disappeared, Willie’s face breaking into a bright grin. “Cool.”

Alex laughed, his fingers brushing Willie’s as he took his braid from him with his free hand. The braid was missing something.

“Not satisfied?” Willie said, lacing their fingers together.

Alex glanced at their locked hands, buzzing with excited rather than anxious nerves for once. “Yeah,” he said. “It needs…” He shook his head, seconds passing before he had his answer. “Would flowers be too much?”

“Absolutely not,” Willie said with his saw-something-cute smile. He seemed to be using that one on Alex more and more recently. “As long as they’re blue.” He pointed to his blue and yellow crop top.

“Of course. I wouldn’t risk cramping your style.” Alex apparated away and gathered matching blue flowers before returning to the studio. This time he stayed on the couch, he and Willie each turning to a comfortable work position. Alex used the utmost care as he took out the hair-tie and ran his fingers through Willie’s hair to undo the braid, relishing in it. To his delight, Willie emitted a soft, content sigh, and maybe Alex played with his hair a bit longer than necessary in response.

“Have you done this before?” Willie asked as Alex began the new braid.

“Flower braiding, no,” Alex said, although Willie was easily a worthy recipient of such a task. “Braiding in general, yes.”

“How’d you learn?” Willie said.

There was a beat of silence. “My sister,” he said. “She was a couple years older than me. Before I came out she taught me as a quote unquote ‘service to my future girlfriend.’” He chuckled. “After I came out, the first thing she said to me was that I had to get a boyfriend with long hair so as not to waste the skill.”

Willie turned his head without hindering Alex’s work but enough that Alex could see his smile. “Is that why you’re obsessed with my hair?”

“I am not  _ obsessed_,” Alex huffed. His fingers brushed Willie’s neck as he made his way down the braid, the flowers providing periodic bursts of color, albeit crooked ones.

Willie faced forward again. “I saw the look you gave me when I first took off my helmet,” he said, and Alex could sense the accompanying eyebrow wiggle.

Alex blushed, thankful Willie was no longer looking back at him. “I braid your hair and you call me out. That’s real nice.”

“Sorry,” Willie said, sounding not the least bit sorry. “Teasing is the only kind of flirting I know.”

Alex’s stomach did approximately ten flops in the span of a few seconds. “Oh,” he squeaked. He finished the braid with the hair-tie. At first he was disappointed that he was straighter than the flowers, but the messiness of it fit Willie as a person better than a pristine job would have anyway.

Willie turned and scooted until they were touching. “Yeah,” he said, hand hovering over Alex’s with newfound hesitation. “If that’s okay?”

Alex took the offered hand though it sent shivers up and down his arm, just like in the museum when Willie showed him how to move the stone bench. Willie’s face relaxed at the contact. “More than okay,” Alex said, even though his mind said,  _ Abort mission_. He hadn’t dated anyone since Luke, and that was only a couple months of them figuring things out before realizing they were better as friends. His greatest skill was coming up with every possible way something could go wrong, and he always found ten times more ways things could go wrong than things could go right, but he didn’t want to screw up things with Willie. Especially not after everything they’d gone through to get to this point.

Yes, despite all the potential negative outcomes racing through Alex’s head, he couldn’t bring himself to let go of Willie’s hand or back up or look anywhere but Willie’s soft brown eyes. How someone could be so down-to-earth and so captivating at the same time, Alex would never understand. If he was as smooth as Willie, Luke, or Reggie, this would have been the part where he leaned in or asked Willie to be his boyfriend. But Alex was Alex, and there were still so many things he didn’t know about Willie that he couldn’t stop thinking about, and his heart and mind were skittering, so he said, “Did you really die by skating in traffic?”

Willie was taken off-guard, but then he was shaking his head in amusement. “Yeah,” he said. “Although for once I wasn’t just being reckless.” 

Gathering both his nerve and his inner cheesiness, Alex let go of Willie’s hand and faked a yawn as he stretched, placing an arm around his shoulders.

Willie snorted though appreciation underlied the sound. “That move has been dead longer than you have.”

“Is that a complaint?” Alex said with unusual cockiness and a tilted head. Willie didn’t erase his anxiety, but he filed the edge off of it, gave him motivation to find his courage.

Willie leaned into his side. “Never. Confidence looks good on you.” He paused. “Then again, so does everything else.”

Alex’s face turned the same pastel pink as his signature sweatshirt. “I can’t tell if you’re flirting with me because you want to or to change the subject.”

“Can’t it be both?” Willie said, flashing a megawatt smile before giving Alex’s heart a break. “I uh, I actually ended up skating in the street because I was trying to lose a couple cops.”

“Because you’d been skating where you shouldn’t have been?”

“Because I broke into a museum,” Willie said, at least having the decency to be embarrassed. 

Alex’s jaw dropped. “Wait, you did that while alive, too?”

Willie nodded, then rushed to clarify, “Not to skate around like you and I did! Just because...it’s peaceful there when it’s empty. Art has a different quality to it when it feels like it exists just for you.”

“I can understand that,” Alex said, mentally comparing attending a concert versus experiencing music solo. There was a magical energy to the joint experience, but doing things alone was entirely different, like you were being sung  _ to_. All at once Alex became certain Willie was the type of person who would appreciate being serenaded, a note he filed away for later. He smiled as another thought struck him. “Did you get caught because you were screaming?”

For once Willie was the one to blush. “I’ll never tell.”

“That’s a yes,” Alex said, nudging Willie with his entire side. He chewed his lip. “Can I ask one more question? A personal one?”

Willie raised an eyebrow. “More personal than death?” He said it like a joke, but they both know that death was often just the tip of the iceberg. Death revealed more history than it covered. In some ways death made history permanent, like how Alex’s parents may have come around to his sexuality eventually, but now the best they could do was accept other people’s. By dying Alex was solidified as the son they could never look in the eye.

“How did—how did Caleb end up with your soul?” Alex said, eyes trained where his and Willie’s thighs were pressed together. Caleb hadn’t been seen since Alex, Luke, and Reggie’s stamps disappeared, but they weren’t optimistic enough to believe he was truly gone. Although his absence allowed Willie to move freely for the moment, Caleb still owned his soul.

There was a lump in Willie’s throat. He swallowed.

“Sorry,” Alex said within seconds. “I just—you don’t have to answer that.”

“No, no,” Willie murmured.. “I want to get to know you, but I want you to know me, too.” Before Alex could launch into reassurance that Willie didn’t have to share, Willie said, “I was introduced to Caleb awhile back. He seemed cool at first, the same way he did to you guys. He didn’t need to stamp me in the end, so I guess I put you through worse than I was put through.” Guilt stiffened his posture, and Alex used his free hand to take Willie’s, rubbing circles on the back of it with his thumb.

Willie offered him a grateful smile. “Anyway...I have a sister, too. Younger. I taught her how to skateboard. She taught me how to do graffiti. We were really close. Partners in crime.” The tension lifted from his shoulders as he spoke, a smile growing on his face. “I check in on her sometimes, just to make sure she’s okay.” He took a slow, deep breath. “Last year, not long after I died, there was an accident, to say the least. No one around. I hadn’t been dead long, had no idea what I was doing, how to help. But I figured Caleb would, and I was right. He saved her...in exchange for my soul.”

Alex allowed the answer to sink in before saying, “Do you regret it?” He knew before he was done asking what the response would be.

“No,” Willie said, shaking his head, the braid swaying with him. “Never for a second. I would do anything for her.”

Alex flashed back to the last time he saw Willie before the confrontation with Caleb, how Willie had said the same thing about him. As much as he had wanted—and still wanted—to kiss Willie, in that moment that hug had felt more intimate than any kiss could have. Warmth flooded through him and he smiled despite the topic. Willie wasn’t currently family like Luke, Reggie, and Julie were family, but maybe they were getting there.

Willie half-smiled. “My traumatic backstory funny?”

Alex opened his mouth but swallowed the incoming apology before he could voice it. Alex was getting better at realizing when Willie was just teasing him. He and Alex made fun of Reggie for being oblivious and not understanding sometimes, but when he was anxious, Alex was just as bad. “I just...I’m really happy,” he said. “To get to know you, I mean. That...you trust me.”

Willie’s face softened, unable to keep up the joking tone in response to Alex’s sincerity. “I don’t know how you can say that after all I put you through. How  _ you _ can trust  _ me_.”

Alex shrugged. “I just...I don’t believe you were ever trying to hurt us. More than that, you put your literal soul on the line to fix what you did. Maybe that wouldn’t be enough for some people, but it’s enough for me.” He withdrew his arm and released Willie’s hand, his hands settling on his lap along with his gaze. “I...I care about you too, you know. I didn’t get the chance to say that when you did, but I do.” His leg was bouncing again. All the second-guessing was rushing back for  _ no reason_, because taking the time to think meant giving himself the time to overthink, and now he was spiraling, and—

Willie was standing, and he grabbed Alex’s hands, pulling him to his feet, though he didn’t let go even then. “We’ve got time before your friends get here. I want to show you something.”

Several thoughts struck, but the only one that made it out was, “Okay.”

Willie apparated himself and Alex onto a sidewalk Alex didn’t recognize. Willie was still holding one of Alex’s hands in a firm grasp, the metal of his bracelets cool against Alex’s skin though it wasn’t the reason Alex was shivering.

“Willie, what did—” He cut off as Willie turned, Alex turning with him, and found his answer.

Spray-painted on the wall before them were four people in silhouette-like blocks of color: one with a purple dress and a microphone. One with a red vest and matching guitar. One with a pink suit and a pair of drumsticks. One with a blue sleeveless top and a white guitar. Above the figures was “Julie” in bright purple and “and the Phantoms” in glittery silver.

Alex squeezed Willie’s hand to keep from getting choked up. He’d always wanted to be on a billboard but never got the chance. This was a suitable replacement. Maybe this was better.

“I thought you guys could use some extra promo, although maybe you won’t need it now that you’ve played the Orpheum.” Willie bit his lip. “Do you like it?”

“Do I—” Alex turned his head toward Willie, then back to the graffiti, then back to Willie. “Of course I do, it’s—it’s amazing. Thank you, Willie.” His attention went back to soaking in the art for another minute before returning to Willie once more. “But why?” Alex didn’t know much about art, especially graffiti, but basic observation indicated how long this must have taken.

Willie laughed under his breath, cheeks tinted red again. “I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

“This isn’t an attempt at another apology, is it?” Alex asked.

“No,” Willie said. “Just...an attempt to show I care.” Satisfaction rolled off him in waves.

All of Alex’s affection for the boy holding his hand hit Alex at once like a freight train to the chest, but he should be freaking out, but he couldn’t find it in him to feel anything other than pure adoration. “Willie, I—” Damn, how was he supposed to do this? When he and Luke started dating, it was more an accident than a decision. They had a  _ moment _ and kissed and that was that. What was the protocol for this sort of thing? Did the rules change for the dead? Did dead people even  _ have _ boyfriends?

Willie rocked his whole body so it nudged Alex’s. “I can feel you thinking again.”

“Well you make me overthink,” Alex blurted. “You’re cute and it’s distracting.” He stared straight ahead at the wall, heart pounding. In the corner of his eye, Willie was beaming, but a minute passed before he spoke, caught off-guard by Alex’s boldness.

“I’ve got another ghost trick for you,” Willie said, unfazed by the resulting confusion from Alex. “Great for turning off your brain.”

Alex hoped this was going somewhere and wasn’t a way to gently direct him away from ever attempting to flirt again.

Willie had to stand on his toes to level his face with Alex’s, his touch light as he placed his hands on Alex’s waist.

_ Oh. _

Okay, yeah, Alex’s brain was empty now. Coherent thoughts were for people who didn’t have the most beautiful boy in the world inches away, smiling at them like they personally made the sun rise each morning. 

Willie leaned in, leaving no more than an inch, so close that his breath was ghosting over Alex’s lips, close enough that Alex could practically feel Willie’s smile on his skin. On instinct Alex’s hands came up to cup Willie’s face, fingers tangling in his hair above the braid, thumbs grazing over his cheekbones. Alex was pretty sure Willie had stopped breathing, and he chuckled, tranquil in a way he hadn’t expected and empowered by Willie’s bated breath.

Willie was wrong. Kissing him didn’t turn off Alex’s brain. It made him ten times more aware but focused all the energy on every sensation Willie provided him with: chapped lips, soft hair, cool skin, fingers curling into his shirt as if it was the only thing anchoring Willie to the ground. Hot breath when they broke apart only to go right back together for a chaste follow-up. When they pulled back the second time, they only went far enough to place their foreheads together, eyes closed as they shared a carefree laugh, basking in their shared glow. There was something energizing but uncomplicated about kissing Willie, and Alex could repeat that action for the rest of his death. He was definitely willing to hold his hand at every opportunity.

Ages passed before Alex opened his eyes, but he still did so before Willie, who was still clutching Alex’s shirt. When Willie finally opened his eyes as well, his fists uncurled though they didn’t leave Alex’s waist. Alex didn’t mind; they felt right there, like they were meant to be there all along.

“Willie?” Alex said. “You, uh, wanna be my boyfriend?”

Willie lit up, his eyes dancing. “I thought you’d never ask, Hot Dog.” As he stepped back, his hands dropped to Alex’s, swinging them. Willie was invigorated, half rocking on the balls of his feet.

“That is still incredibly insensitive,” Alex said, a statement that had no bite when he was filled with the same giddiness Reggie had at nearly all times.

“Yeah, but I think you like it.”

Alex rolled his eyes, but he did like it and they both knew it. He was completely see-through, and with Willie, he didn’t mind. Willie let go of one of his hands, but only so they could stroll side-by-side. They could have apparated to the studio, but instead they walked all the way back hand in hand, swapping stories from both before and after dying.

There were many things that death changed, but love was not one of them.


End file.
